Tinubu swears in Oyedele as finance minister of state
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday swore in Taiwo Oyedele as Minister of State for Finance during a brief ceremony held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The swearing-in took place at about 2:30 pm at the President’s office inside the Aso Rock complex. A source present at the ceremony confirmed the development to newsmen on Monday.
Earlier, Oyedele and his wife were seen arriving at the Villa around 2:09 pm after clearing security checks. The newly appointed minister appeared in a navy-blue suit while his wife wore white traditional attire.
His inauguration came five days after the Senate confirmed his nomination following an extensive screening session.
The confirmation was announced by Godswill Akpabio, President of the Senate, after lawmakers adopted the recommendation of the Committee of the Whole during plenary on Wednesday, March 12.
President Tinubu had earlier forwarded Oyedele’s nomination to the Senate on March 3 in a letter addressed to Akpabio, seeking legislative approval in line with Section 147(2) of the 1999 Constitution.
Oyedele, 50, hails from Ikaram-Akoko in Ondo State and brings more than two decades of experience in fiscal policy and taxation to the position.
Before his appointment, he served as chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, which led a sweeping overhaul of Nigeria’s tax framework.
The committee, inaugurated in August 2023, developed four major executive bills aimed at streamlining the country’s tax structure by consolidating over 60 taxes into fewer than 10 statutes.
The bills — the Nigeria Tax Bill, Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, and Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill — were passed by the National Assembly in 2025 after months of debate.
President Tinubu later signed the legislation into law on June 26, 2025, with the new Tax Reform Acts taking effect on January 1, 2026.
Among the reforms was a provision granting zero income tax for Nigerians earning N800,000 annually or less. Small businesses with annual turnover below N50 million were also exempted from company income tax, capital gains tax and withholding tax, alongside incentives designed to encourage job creation and wage growth.
Prior to his public sector role, Oyedele spent 22 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he rose to become Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader.
Academically, he holds a Higher National Diploma in Accountancy and Finance from Yaba College of Technology and a BSc in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University. He has also completed executive programmes at London School of Economics, Yale University, Gordon Institute of Business Science, and Harvard Kennedy School.
Oyedele currently serves as a professor at Babcock University and a visiting scholar at Lagos Business School.
He replaces Doris Uzoka-Anite, who has been redeployed as Minister of State for the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, marking her third portfolio under the Tinubu administration.
Speaking during his Senate screening, Oyedele described the appointment as “a call to serve at a critical time when Nigeria faces significant fiscal challenges and remarkable opportunities.”
“With over two decades of experience working with national governments, multilateral institutions and global corporations, my journey across the private sector, academia and public policy has focused on fiscal governance and economic transformation,” he told lawmakers.
